Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour

Friday afternoon while I was at the Minnesota State Fair 4-H Swine Show I received the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour numbers. It was exactly at 1:30 that the numbers were released. Pro Farmer estimated the corn national yield at 163.3 bushels an acre and the national soybean yield at 46.1 bushels an acre. Using the acres from the August USDA Supply Demand Report that puts total corn production at 13.358 billion bushel and soybeans at 3.4 billion bushels.

The Pro Farmer corn yield is about 5 bushel an acre lower than the USDA's estimate in the August Report and beans about 2 bushels an acre lower. However, there are a lot of questions about the difference in the planted acres the USDA used for corn and soybeans and the total planted acres that was released by the USDA Farm Service Agency.

I have read studies have shown that 97 percent of the planted acres are enrolled in the USDA Farm Program or had crop insurance so they had to be reported or certified to local Farm Service Agency offices. So, why is there such a big difference between the USDA planted acres and the Farm Service Agency?